back. she coming back. lord going to bring her back. hope you come back as beyonce so i can give you some oraclely. >> marlon wayans. good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, october 31st. happy halloween for folks who can remember and celebrate halloween today. i know there are a lot of you without power but everybody doing their best to get that back up and going. i'm sarah simmons. >> i'm wisdom martin. time to get a quick check of

weather with tucker barnes. >> hi, guys. we are quieting things down. clouds across the area. not a beautiful -- i know today is a big day. it's halloween. not going to be a beautiful day today but the worst of sandy dim past us now. we'll see maybe a little sunshine later today and slightly warmer temperatures as highs are expected tobe back in the mid-50s. just cloud cover and looks like we've got one shower south and west of the city, well south and west of the city. we'll see a few leftover showers here early and mostly cloudy skies and a little afternoon sun with highs in the mid-50s. much quieter weather pattern after the last couple of days. lots of new maps coming up in just a few minutes. back to you. >> thank you. there is historic devastation left behind from sandy. almost 50 people are dead. new york city sub wades are going to be closed for days and

snow is blanketing west virginia. today, president obama will tour the damaged areas with the governor of new jersey. >> and in our area, more than 200,000 people are still without power in northern virginia, maryland and d.c. bg & e reporting the most outages, nearly 150,000. along the potomac river, fear of more needing continues as high tide is expected in alexandria later this morning. traveling around the country and overseas is a little bit harder in the wake of the superstorm. >> especially complicated on the eastern seaboard right now. fox's william la jeunesse takes a look at when people can expect relief. >> reporter: airlines, rail, shipping, public transportation in six major cities basically in lockdown. more than 16,000 flights canceled since sunday. and the number is rising. >> i think we're going to see more cancellations tomorrow and probably through friday until the airlines get their act back

together. i'm not convinced that everyone is going to be able to get back where they're going until maybe five or seven days from now. >> reporter: washington, baltimore, philadelphia, boston airports all continue to report cancellation. >> as i was going through security, they canceled my second flight. as i got down to the gate for the third flight, they canceled it. >> reporter: because new york airports are international transit points, many passengers can not get in or out of europe. >> basically three days and only seeing airports. >> reporter: today, airlines canceled about 2,000 more flights no wednesday. waiting lists are long, call centers overwhelmed. many passengers have to pay their own hotel bill, up to $400 a night in new york. amtrak shut down the northeast corridor monday and tuesday stranding some 750,000 daily

riders. officials expect subways in new york to partially open in the next few days. >> our administration will move heaven and earth to help them so we can get back up and running as quickly as humanly possible. >> reporter: the brooklyn tunnel remains filled with water and must be pumped out. >> and massive pumps used in hurricane katrina have begun to drain the opportunity el there. kennedy airport will reopen on a restricted basis today but la guardia is still under power and newark doesn't even have power. amtrak could have limited service today. as for the subways, engineers will have to inspect the 600 miles of track once the water is pumped out of there. in sports, the wizards open the regular season with john wall on the bench nursing an injury. the cavs would jump to a 16- point lead. they drop the opener, 94-846789 the home opener is saturday

night against the celtics. there goes your 82-0 start for the wizards. >> okay. we still have plenty ahead. >> fox 5 morning news at 4:30 starts now. happy wednesday. it is october 31st. a live look outside right now at the washington monument as people try to recover and get back to some sense of normalcy after what we've been through in the last couple of days with hurricane sandy. i'm sarah simmons. >> i'm wisdom martin. welcome to fox 5 morning news. the federal government will reopen today. the employees still have the option for up scheduled leave or telework. >> most schools are reopened but there are delays out there. can you find that information scrolling on the bottom of the screen. >> utility companies are making some progress on the out ams.

out -- outages. pepco promised to have the power restored to 90% of its customers by this morning. let's get a quick look at the weather now with tucker. a lot of people still in the dark and it is cold out there too. >> and it's halloween. >> isn't it amazing how we kind of dodged a bullet here when you see what is happening in new york with the airport under water, the subway under water. it was crazy. >> yeah. we'll get into that. >> okay. >> we'll let you get into today's weather. >> we got to look at that. >> we got plenty of time. >> let's do the satellite- radar. here is the good news. things wind down. not going to be a beautiful day but things will be gradually improving in the way of less rain and less wind and eventually a few peeks of sunshine today.

there is your storm or what is left of t it is not nearly as well organized as it was yesterday afternoon. it will be lifting to the north and taking with it its energy. eventually, the trend over the next couple of days will be more and more sunshine. it will remain on the cool side. reagan national, 43 degrees. dulles, 39. bwi marshall, 41. nice and cool out there. nice, cool start to your day. it will be a cool afternoon with highs only in the upper 40s and 50s. we'll have 55 here in up to. you can see lots of 40s north and west. justify a few peeks of sunshine. >> so we think for the most part the rain is out of the area. the snow in west virginia? >> that is winding down too. still got some snow flying out there. but for trick or treating tonight, should be just fine. a little cool. >> thank you. time now to see what is happening with julie wright, first look at on-time traffic. >> good morning. right now, kind of busy. we have a couple of things to

work on on the roadways. accident activity inner loop of the beltway at 450. annapolis road tying up the right side of the highway. still a portion of 10 # shut down in ashton between meek hollow road and new hampshire avenue due to wires down in the road -- a portion of 108 shut down in ashton. a portion of braddock road at like lake road is still under water. 395 good to go headed north of landmark out to the 14th street bridge. the same thing for those traveling south on 270. my trip out of gaithersburg headed out towards the split was pretty much uneventful. getting there was kind of tricky. the secondary road saturated with leaves. allow extra time out there on the roads. be very careful again if you run into standing water. do not drown. turn around. do not attempt to travel through that. that's a check of your fox 5

on-time traffic. >> all right. thank you. superstorm sandy leaves a path of destruction across the northeast. just look at these pictures. up in new york, there is unprecedented damage to the transportation system there. some buses are running for free but it will take days to get that subway fully restored. a massive fire in a flooded section of queens destroyed over 80 homes. amazingly, no one died from that and the stock market finally set to open using back- up generators this morning. later on today, president obama will meet with governor chris christie to tour parts of new jersey. and closer to home now in alexandria where people fear what sandy could still have in store. high tides are expected on the potomac later this morning raising some concerns of mored intoing. fox 5's melanie alnwick is live in old town with the latest on that situation. >> reporter: good morning. people here in old town standery are pretty used to this. we had ter covering the street yesterday. it is perfectly dry pavement

right now. they prepared for it. they are ready for it. and with high tide just a few hours away, as you mentioned think the businesses say they can't clean up the storm preparations just yet. yesterday again, old town alexandria braced for possible flooding of historic proportions. the water came up a few feet. once the wind and rain stopped, there were plenty of onlookers who come to old town to see what sandy had to bring to them. businesses and resident in the low-lying area were well prepared with sand bagged that the city distributed in advance of the storm. >> they close opportunity, raise all their furniture up off the floor and deal with it. it's been doing this for -- i've been here 55 years. of a seen it worse. >> reporter: the worst flooding was in 1933 and right about

that time, this part of old town alexandria, the high watermark was six feet. so i'm about 5' 4" without heels so with a offer my head is where the water was in the historic flooding proportions. yes, it flooded here. they do expect it. it is usual. but again, they are still waiting to see what the remnants are going to be here because, again, high tide today expected a little after 10:00 this morning and city officials say they do expect high tide on thursday perhaps will be the worst as it comes up probably even higher than that. we are waiting for all of the water that has come from northern parts to make its way down here. but again, they're pretty used to this. they've been through it many, many times. sometimes more than once a year. back to you. >> 5' 4" is not that bad,

melanie. in ocean city, the storm caused lots of damage. streets were flooded. the national guard evacuated about 50 people during that storm. most of the people who failed to leave areas where mandatory evacuations had been ordered. still the town had no deaths or injuries. early voting will resume in most counties across the region today. in montgomery county, maryland, early voting centers will open at 8:00 a.m. and and voting hours will be extended from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. through november 2nd. metro is back up and running. the entire metro system is expected to resume normal operations this morning including metro access service. metro is warning some bus routes could still be affected by flooding and blocked roads so allow some extra time for your trip. amtrak is also back up and running but with limited service today. there are modified northeast regional services south from newark, new jersey.

that includes routes to and from virginia. there is still no access to new york city. flights are resuming at the d.c. area airports following hurricane sandy. it is likely most airlines will resume operations today. passengers are still encouraged to check their flight status before leaving for the airport. >> we continue to follow the aftermath of superstorm sandy. >> three explosions at three different homes in our area. was it all the work of one man. we are checking more headlines on the other side of the break.

. police are looking for the man responsible for flee pipe bomb explosions at three

different homes. the explosions happened in stafford county yesterday afternoon. stafford county sheriff says it targeted three homes. all of the home were significantly damaged but no one was sure. the death toll from the meningitis outbreak continues to climb. 28 people have now been killed from the fungal strain believed to be caused by steroid injects from back pain. the number of cases is now up to 363 in 19 states, 20 in maryland with one dead. 44 in virginia with two dead. there are still no cases in the district. this type of giants is not contagious. it can only come from the medication used in those injections. with less than a week until election day, governor mitt romney returns to the campaign trail with stops in florida today. yesterday, he campaigned in ohio and collected relief supplies for hurricane victims. he also picked up the endorsement of former chrysler

ceo, lee iaccoca. president obama says the storm is not over as he toured the northwest. he warns there is still a risk from flooding and downed power lines. today, mr. obama will get a look at the damage along with new jersey governor chris christie. we want to share this political note with you. our maryland senate debate originally scheduled for 9:00 this morning has been canceled because of the storm aftermath. we apologize that we were not able to reschedule it before election day. neighborhoods throughout our area cleaning up from superstorm sandy. up next, the latest on the damages. >> plus rain and wind not the only issues in some parts of the area. this kind -- this could be a good thing for some areas and businesses. plus tucker has weather and julie has traffic.

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. oh, man. >> look at that. >> take a look at. this this is snow shoe mountain resort in west virginia dealing with snow from sandy and clearly a lot of snow. at last check, the mountain had more than two feet of wet, heavy snow. they will decide today whether to open early to take advantage of the snow. >> i say you have to.

>> that makes me almost want to go up to the resort. >> almost. >> it looks nice. >> if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. >> have you ru a skier -- are you a skier? >> i've been once in my life. >> how did it go? >> it didn't go well. >> now, you reach a stage where you start breaking things when you fall. >> recovery takes longer. >> exactly. >> let's get right to it. good news is things are winding down ever so slowly. it is not going to be -- today won't be a bright and sunny day but at least the heaviest of the rain and the strongest of the winds have passed us by. so there is your radar. still some light showers and sprinkles out there. most of this is not touching the ground but there might be a little mist or a little shower activity for you as you start your day particularly off to the west. it seems to be where most of

the action is at the moment. we are cloudy at the moment. the clouds will hang tough here today. wing he will see a little late day sunshine or perhaps by midday, we'll star to see breaks in the clouds. we may see a little late-day sunshine. it is still a big mess here across the eastern seaboard. the storm doesn't have its water supply anymore to help feed its energy. it is losing power, losing strength. still some showers up in new york and boston. back out to the west as we were mentioning here, still getting some mountain snow out in west virginia. the trend will be to get it out of here and keep things cool. i think by tomorrow, things will look a lot brighter. 43 in washington. we are not getting reports from some of these stations. cool temperatures to start your

day. 39 at gaithersburg. dulles, 39 degrees. 43 in annapolis, 43 in fredericksburg. mostly cloudy sky. did i mention still cool? winds southwest at about five to 10. a little sun today. happy halloween. thursday, friday, saturday, sunday, generally dry with cool temperatures. the weekend will be nice and dry here with temperatures in the 50s. that is a hook at weather. let's get the latest from julie on traffic. she is having a ghoulish start to her day. >> that's right. it is halloween. did you get candy? igot candy but i don't think i'm going have any kids because i don't have any electricity. that will scare them. >> great. you will find the lanes are open on the major arteries traveling around town. what is going to be complicated is getting to our major arteries. our second regardy roads still

troubled with flooding, signal lights that are not working properly. a lot of leaves and tree debris to be cheaped up at this time. allow extra time and watch your speeds. the combination of wet roads and leaves makes for a slippery ride. southbound 270 in good shape. a large tree down. white ferry shut down until further notice. we typically use that out of frederick. that is not happening this morning. you will find old georgetown road at the beltway has cleared. if you are traveling virginia, 193 at the georgetown pike at old dominion, we have trees down there as. we it is a combination of what to expect out on the roads. a better ride for you along canal road and foxhall road. that is nice and clear coming in from the d.c. line headed out towards georgetown. no trouble spots to report. that's a check of your fox 5 on-timetraffic. imetraffic.

. >> thank you. a prince william county family is thankful they are alive after i atree destroyed their home actually gigantic tree on their next door neighbor's lawn came crashing down during the storm and split their house in two. it has been condemned and the owners from three kids and were home from the free came down. luckily, no one was hurt -- when the tree came down. another tree knocked down a utility poll and blocked willard avenue and downed power lines and high flood waters forces four dozen roads in montgomery county to close yesterday. in the district where damage was less than expected but sandy still left her mark. take a look at this video wray tree fell on to the corner of a home. quite the mess to pick up but thankfully, no one inside the house was hurt. superstorm sandy could have delivered a big blow to our

economy. that is coming up next. >> first, some snapshots of the devastation left behind in new jersey and new york. what an eerie sight. anncr: their ads, hopelessly untrueue.

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every year. that's why business, labor, and teachers all support... question seven. and so does the washington post. vote for question seven. it's just common sense. sandy has left us more than just flooded roads and downed trees. earliest mats show $20 billion in property damage and another $10 to $30 billion in lost business. while the economy will tax a hard hit from the storm, one analyst believes sandy could have a positive impact in the long run. >> the first information we get will be from lost output and airline cancellation and that will be negative. then, more and more, we'll start seeing trickling into the economic data the benefits of the reconstruction. >> sandy is predicted to be one of the 10 most expensive storms

in history but still far below hurricane katrina which ran a price tag of more than $100 billion. >> some perspective there but things are calming down in fairfax county after sandy shut down that area. but there is still plenty of work to be done there. >> beth parker reports. >> reporter: from this spot on his roof, norm richards has a pretty good view of prosperity avenue but some of the people who live mere may not be feeling all that prosperous today. >> water dripping through the living room and i got a littleup set. that is why we spent all this money to have a new roof put on. >> reporter: a leaky roof and no electricity here in the pine ridge neighborhood in fairfax county. with some wood and a blue tarp, richards is making a temporary repair. not far away, we find a spot that might be the cause of that power outage on prosperity, a

tree down below. a bucket truck up above. wires hang in the path. randy and this tree crew came up from south carolina and they will be working long days. >> probably about 12 hours. >> reporter: this is in annandale. this huge tree in somebody's front yard actually split in half at the bottom. it happened around 7:00 monday night. it tore the driveway right out of the ground. >> one went left and one rent to the ride rite. >> no more shade. plenty of sun. >> reporter: that giant oak tree that fell in the neighbor's yard missed clara reynolds house by inches. >> i'm so relieved. it was a great relief especially since it didn't hit either house. >> reporter: didn't hit a house and didn't hit any passing cars. clara had just dozed off when she heard the enormous crack. >> very frightening. >> reporter: how loud in. >> you too probably have heard it a couple of blocks. >> reporter: she is without power too but somewhat relieved

that this tall tree she fretted about for so many years is now gone. >> i'm kind of thankful for sandy because i don't have to worry about the tree anymore. >> reporter: in annandale, beth darker, fox 5 news. >> clean-up will continue for days. coming up, opening tipoff on a new season for the washington wizards. >> they are on the road facing the cleveland cavaliers. did the wizards get off on the right foot? are they going to go 82-0. sports is coming up next. ♪ [ female announcer ] nature exists on the grandest scale... ♪ ...and in the tiniest details. ♪ and sometimes both. nature valley granola thins pack the big taste of granola and dark chocolate into one perfect square,

under 100 calories. nature valley granola thins. nature at its most delicious. we were told to build a 30-f-foot stage. gathered the guys and we built that 30-foot stage, not knowing what it was for. just days later, all three shifts were told to assemble in the warehouse. a group of people walked out on that stage and told us that the plant is now closed and all of you are fired... i looked both ways, i looked at the crowd, and...we all just lost our jobs. we don't have an income. mitt romney made over 100 million dollars by shutting down our plant and devastated our lives. turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin, and it just made me sick.

[ male announcer ] priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising. . the wizards kicked off the regular season in cleveland with john wall on the bench. he is still nursing an injury. rookie bradley beal sored eight points in his debut -- scored eight points in his debut. in the end, the wizards'

chances of going 82-0 are now gone. they would fall short. the cavaliers win 94-84. the wizards home opener is 7:00 p.m. on saturday. the nfl still reviewing deangelo's halls actions in sunday's loss to the steelers. that lead to his ejection. he took his helmet off in the process of complaining chase penalty. he explained his actions in a radio interview. >> nobody is going out there trying to bully the referees and likewise. they shouldn't be out there trying to bully us. from that particular camera angle, you can't see what that ref is saying to me. if you could go back and change things, you would. this is nothing i can do to take that particular play back or what happened after that. all we can do from my point of view and the referee's pointed of view and the nfl is try to figure out a solution so that problem doesn't happen again. >> let me get hi